PTHUMULHU, LEGENDS, JULY 23 2024

 Any vowel you like, as long as it's 'U'

Venue: LEGENDS, EDINBURGH

Line-up:

TLÖN: New 'supergroup', formed of ex members of atmospheric black metallers HAAR, and some other people. Expect 'subjective idealism filtered through a dissonant lens.  Change of plan. Covid strikes.

PUPPET MIDNIGHT: Last minute addition to the line-up. Solo wonky lo-fi weird-punk. A little odd, perhaps, on this hefty bill, but there's nothing wrong with mixing things up a bit. I reckon Stuart beefed up his usual sound a bit, but his 'eccentric' bass playing and mostly-spoken songs/poems still puzzled the early arriving metalheads. Especially the handful of foreign tourists who'd come along to see the headliners. I can imagine them, back in Germany(maybe) trying to explain Puppet Midnight to their friends...

VIDEO:   https://youtu.be/FmfRBYWY5m8  https://www.facebook.com/PuppetMidnight

ACIDSAURUS BONG: Dank. 

Regular readers will know Acidsaurus Bong and their swampy turbo-sludge, but tonight they have some NEW stuff to play, including a 17 minute epic about the A9 road(which I DID record, by the way, but is not for public consumption. Yet.)

                                       

VIDEO:  https://youtu.be/3hFPk5OtVzg   https://www.facebook.com/acidsaurusbong

PTHUMULHU: Blackened doom trio from Iceland, or a Lovecraftian cosmic horror from outer space. Or maybe both.

Pthumulhu are quite terrifying. Dressed all in black. Black masks. A single small light at their feet. Savage, intense black noise. Absolutely no interaction with the audience. Magnificent stuff. Watch the video.

VIDEO:  https://youtu.be/ZqPoCBKPQBQ There's no Facebook link, because they're too grim for social media. They're on Instagram, but you won't find much there.

HEADLESS KROSS, HOME BAR, EDINBURGH, JULY 12 2024

 Following on from last week's post, here's another new venue. And a couple of new bands.

Venue: HOME BAR, EDINBURGH

Line-up:

VEXATIONS: Local 'off-kilter post-punk quartet', only played their first gig back in May. Nice'n'noisy, fast'n'furious, great stuff. Guitarist on the left, over by the drums, managed to break a string -the SAME string - three times - once during sound check, once while re-stringing and once again during their set. Maybe he should look into that...

VIDEO: https://youtu.be/-ovooOKvMB0   https://www.facebook.com/vexationsedinburgh

POUND LAND: Pound Land's music has been described (by Christopher Nosnibor at Aural Aggravation) as 'harrowing, nasty and overtly unpleasant', and he's not wrong. They're down a guitarist tonight, so it's just drums, bass, vocals and saxophone, and it's filthy. They're from Manchester, as if that explains anything.

VIDEO:   https://youtu.be/BSBUu-jGVDs  https://www.facebook.com/pound.land.2024

HEADLESS KROSS: Veteran Glaswegian psych/doom trio, no strangers to the capital, doing exactly what they do, and doing it very well. They've had plenty of practice, after all. Bonus points to drummer Johnny for asking after my cat. 

Interesting coincidence - guitarist Tommy Duffin works with PAL and Dragged Up from the recent Leith Depot gig and recorded their latest music.

VIDEO:   https://youtu.be/RVYeIp5n1lo   https://www.facebook.com/headlesskross

FUTURE GET DOWN, SUMMERHALL OLD LAB, EDINBURGH, JULY 5 2024

An unexpected gig, but not unwelcome. It's Friday 5th July and the Tories have been routed at the general election. TheFudlip has been active for about 13 years, so this is the VERY FIRST gig I am covering under a non-Tory government, and I am happy. How long that'll last remains to be seen.

Anyway, I am invited along to make a video for the QUIET, THE ART, the only band tonight I have seen before, in a venue I've never been in before and which might not exist much longer.

VENUE: THE OLD LAB, SUMMERHALL, EDINBURGH

Line-up:

BOARDGAME : Local duo, making chilled ambient electronica at a table covered in knobs and things with wires. Nice swirly visuals to complete the experience. 

VIDEO: https://youtu.be/fj_mJuzGVTw

QUIET, THE ART: The lads I'm here to see, another duo, doing a lovely, mostly instrumental post-rock/indie kind of thing, for fans of Mogwai/Aereogramme/Twilight Sad. There aren't any pics here, because I'm recording the full set and I can only hold one camera at a time. Sadly, however, things don't go according to plan when my camera has a 'moment' and stops working halfway through the third song, and then fails to save anything prior to that. I start it up again, but I only get the last 20-odd minutes of the set. The lads are nice about it, but I'm annoyed. They're back in September, so I shall try again. In the meantime, here's a song from the stuff I DID manage to save.

VIDEO:    https://youtu.be/C9Lcpa2X__o      https://www.facebook.com/quiettheart

FUTURE GET DOWN: An entire festival line-up in one band. They're psych, kraut rock, desert rock, post-punk, noise and groovy pop, sometimes all together at once. I know nothing about them, so I check out their Bandcamp page afterwards and, take my word for it, they go much harder live. Great stuff.

Apparently, they lost some momentum as a band when Covid hit and haven't done much recently. Hopefully, this gig will give them a boost and they'll be back for more soon.

VIDEO: https://youtu.be/sB89aRi9X_I   https://www.facebook.com/futuregetdown

So, the venue. Summerhall in Edinburgh is a multi-venue mixed arts hub, the former Dick vet school, and is currently up for sale. If/when it sells, it will probably be turned into another hotel, or student flats, and a valuable local asset will be lost. The Old Lab is an excellent small space and one I will miss after it's gone. I'll be back there in October, but it's future is currently uncertain.